Thermo-Mechanical Approach to Material Extrusion Process During Fused Filament Fabrication of Polymeric Samples

TL;DR

This paper presents a computational model to simulate the fused filament fabrication process, predicting warpage and residual stresses in 3D-printed PLA parts.

Contribution

The study introduces an automated G-code conversion subroutine and models the detachment stage for more accurate warpage prediction.

Findings

The simulation predicts warpage with an average deviation of 10.6% from experimental measurements.

The model captures the spatial distribution and magnitude of residual stresses in printed PLA components.

Including the detachment stage improves the realism and accuracy of warpage predictions.

Abstract

While material extrusion via fused filament fabrication (FFF) offers design flexibility and rapid prototyping, its practical use in engineering is limited by mechanical challenges, including residual stresses, geometric distortions, and potential interlayer debonding. These issues arise from the dynamic thermal profiles during FFF, including temperature gradients, non-uniform hardening, and rapid thermal cycling, which lead to uneven internal stress development depending on fabrication parameters and object topology. These problems can compromise the structural integrity and mechanical properties of FFF parts, especially when the load-bearing capacity and geometric accuracy are critical. This study focuses on polylactic acid (PLA) due to its widespread application in engineering. It introduces a computational framework for coupled thermo-mechanical simulations of the FFF process using ABAQUS (Version 2020) finite element software. A key innovation is an automated subroutine that converts G-code into a time-resolved event series for finite element activation. The simulation framework explicitly models the sequential stages of printing, cooling, and detachment, enabling prediction of adhesive loss and post-process warpage. A transient thermal model evaluates the temperature distribution during FFF, providing boundary conditions for a mechanical simulation that predicts residual stresses and warping. Uniquely, the proposed model incorporates the detachment stage, enabling a more realistic and experimentally validated prediction of warpage and residual stress release in FFF-fabricated components. Although the average deviation between predicted and measured displacements is about 10.6%, the simulation adequately reflects the spatial distribution and magnitude of warpage, confirming its practical usefulness for process optimization and design validation.

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